Into the West
by IheartOakenshield193712
Summary: Sequel to My Dwarf (I wrote that back in 2013). This is the continuation of the last line: "We're here, my hobbit." :: Bagginshield and happy ending.


**Hello again :) It's been about two years and some months since I wrote "My Dwarf". Well, here is the sequel because I really just couldn't leave poor Bilbo and Thorin without a proper ending. So, I really do hope you enjoy this story. Please read and review and favorite, haha :)**

 **\- IheartOakenshield193712**

* * *

 _ **The last few lines of My Dwarf:**_

 _Bilbo sighed heavily again and shook his head. "I do wish I could have seen my Thorin again. I remember his dark blue eyes. There were some days on the journey I swore they were bright and happy... Before he died, he told me I was his friend, but I wish I could have told him I didn't want to be friends... but something more..."_

 _"Uncle," Frodo cut in softly. "We're here."_

"We're here, my hobbit..."

* * *

 _ **Into the West:**_

The first face Bilbo saw when he stepped from the boat was none other than the brooding dwarf with a dark scowl on his face. The hobbit frowned. He had imagined - no, it had _sounded_ like Thorin was happy to finally reunite with him, but the deep frown on his brow and the cloudiness to his blue eyes told him otherwise. Nonetheless, he stepped forward and extended his hand to Thorin - they hadn't been on the hugging-when-greeting sort of basis when they had parted.

Thorin looked at Bilbo with a hard gaze and it did not waver as he spoke. "I thought you said hobbits didn't live as long as dwarves."

Bilbo frowned. He didn't understand why this question was so important to him. "I-I did. They don't."

"Then why is it that you've lived longer than any hobbit has in a very long while?"

The question stumped Bilbo. "I-"

"Were you dreading to see me again?" Thorin growled. "Did I not make myself clear when I said I'd part with you in friendship?"

"You did! Of course you did!" Bilbo answered a little too quickly for Thorin's liking.

"Did you forget me?" Thorin dared, looking pained.

Bilbo puffed. "No, Thorin. Honestly, I do not know why I've lived for so long! Frodo and that oaf of a wizard will not tell me!"

Thorin's frown transformed into one of concern. "You mean you do not know?"

The hobbit shook his head. "No. Do you know? Is it really that bad-"

A loud commotion behind Thorin interrupted him. Two white-haired dwarves - one with a very long white beard and the other bald at the top of his head with hair much like Dwalin's style - were bustling foward with a purpose. "Oh, Bilbo! You're here!" the one with the long beard cried. Before Bilbo had a chance to figure out which of the dwarves it was, the being had rushed to him and embraced him tightly. "Did you just arrive?"

In a daze from being crushed, Bilbo nodded vaguely.

"Balin, make sure not to overwhelm our burglar," Thorin voiced gently.

"Oh, Balin! So it is you who has squeezed the rest of the living daylights out of me," Bilbo finally beamed. He smiled and turned to the bald dwarf. "And you must be...?"

"Be easy on him lads. He's not seen us for a very long while," the ex-king warned, catching the faltering smile of the dwarf Bilbo was talking to.

"Ori," he said timidly.

"Ohh, my eyes are not as sharp as they used to be," Bilbo laughed off. "Ori, how have you been?"

"Aside from my death, quite well," he replied.

Bilbo looked the three of them. "So, how many of you are here? All thirteen?"

"Everyone but Gloin and Dwalin," Ori said.

"Dwalin? Really?" Bilbo asked in surprise. He turned to Thorin who gave him a small nod.

"Aye, met some pretty lass a few years after," Thorin said. "He's living a fine life."

"And Gloin?"

Thorin rubbed the back of his neck and Balin and Ori shifted uncomfortably. "His health is failing. We think his son Gimli is going to see him off soon."

"There's finally been peace in Middle-earth," Ori smiled.

Bilbo frowned. "There's always been peace.. well, except for that dragon."

"No, burglar," Thorin rumbled. "There was a war over a-"

"You must be the dwarf that my uncle went on that quest with," Frodo gasped, suddenly shaking Thorin's hand. "Oh, I've heard it all now. I just can't believe I am meeting you. Wow, the King under the Mountain himself."

"Now, don't overwhelm the poor dwarf, Frodo," Gandalf boomed. "Hello Thorin."

The disgruntled dwarf harrumphed and pried his hand out of the hobbit's. "You've told other hobbits of our quest?" he grunted, glaring at Bilbo.

"He's my nephew, Thorin."

Said man didn't look convinced.

Bilbo huffed. "His parents died when he was young. I raised him after that. And what child doesn't love a good bedtime story?"

" _I was a bedtime story?_ " Thorin said, taking offense.

"And a party entertainer," Frodo added.

Bilbo thumped him.

Thorin glared at the hobbit. "What does he mean?"

"Of course it was when Gandalf's fireworks weren't going off," he began. "Besides, I would only speak of the trolls and the barrels... nothing else. To the little ones, really."

"But this nephew of yours knew it all?"

Bilbo worried his lip. "Him and the neighbor's little boy, Sam-"

"-and Merry and Pippin," Frodo chimed in. "Our cousins around The Shire. It was always quite funny to hear of your perilous journey," he said with a laugh.

"There was nothing funny about it," Thorin growled, glaring at the hobbit. He looked at Bilbo. "I suppose," he began in a tight voice, "if all you mentioned were the little things in the quest, I'm alright with that. It's not as if you wrote a book about it-"

"Book! Excellent book! The Red Book of Westmarch," Gandalf voiced, his pipe already in his mouth. "Ah, Ol' Samwise Gamgee has it now. Our Frodo here gave it to him before we left Middle-earth."

"A book?" Thorin mouthed in disbelief. "What in Mahal's name would possess you to write a book about it?"

"I have no idea why you're getting so worked up over it!" Bilbo huffed. "It's not as if the journey happened between just the two of us! There were twelve other dwarves, mind you! Besides, it was just something that happened in my life and I didn't want to lose all the details of it, so I wrote it down."

Thorin blinked and stepped back. "I wasn't important to you then?"

Bilbo sighed. "That's not what I meant."

The dwarf folded his arms over his chest and looked at the hobbit patiently - as patiently as Thorin Oakenshield could muster.

"Could we... could we talk about this in private?"

Gandalf thumped his staff. "Come you thirteen, let's pay Lord Elrond a visit." This earned him a lot of whines and grunts and growls from the pack of dwarves. "Come on," he said, practically shooing them and Frodo away from Thorin and Bilbo.

Bilbo wrung his hands and looked at Thorin. "Writing of what happened on the quest was my way... my way of getting past your deaths. I lost three good friends on a journey that I thought would be exciting and life-changing. But it changed my life in a way that I wasn't ready for." He took in a shaky breath. "What did you expect me to do? Grieve over you forever? Die in pain because I'd lost everything in this world that I loved? That I regretted every minute leading up to your death. Was I supposed to continue to hate myself for-"

"What did you say?" Thorin interrupted.

"I hate myself...?"

"No, before."

Bilbo gulped. "That I'd lost everything I loved?"

Thorin stepped closer. "Yes, that." He grasped Bilbo's small hands in his. "You wouldn't happen to be talking about me, would you?"

"You weren't this conceded on the quest."

"In some aspects, I was," he grinned. "For example, when I speak, I speak for a very long time and I expect everyone to listen to me."

"I never did."

"You were too busy fainting, that's why."

"I didn't faint. I passed out."

Thorin chuckled deeply and Bilbo felt his heart swell with love for this idiotic dwarf.

"Besides, what important things did I miss out on when you gave your speeches?"

"Not much but I have one more just for you."

Bilbo rolled his eyes. "Alright, what is it?"

Thorin lifted their clasped hands to his lips and kissed Bilbo's knuckle. "I love you. I should have said this a long time ago. I know you love me as well; I heard you on the carriage."

The hobbit smiled shyly.

"I-I have loved you ever since you defended me from Azog's minions. You showed me your bravery and loyalty on that night, and I will never forget it. I do see the quest as our own journey, because I had spent most of it trying to tell you I loved you." He smiled softly.

"Bilbo Baggins, I have spent an agonizing eighty years apart from you, and now you've finally come home to me."

"And we shall never be parted again," Bilbo added.

Thorin pulled him close, leaned in, and captured his love's lips for the first and not last time in eighty years.

Here's to forever.

* * *

 **A/N: I don't know about you, but I'm crying. So, I hoped you liked this fic as much as it sewed my Bagginshield ripped apart soul back together. :) This is the only sequel for My Dwarf.**

 **\- Beth (aka IheartOakenshield193712)**


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